Tag: holiday

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It’s Now or Never To Buy Myself A Banjo

So far the best starter banjos that I have found online are going for some pretty decent discounts. It feels good taking my time and doing research on finding the best deal ever before placing an order. Last week I discovered a few gift cards that I had received for Christmas and had tucked away so it seems to be a good time to get myself my dream banjo musicians friend. Besides I should be getting a decent tax refund here pretty soon.

This year I promised to use some of the money for something that I would really enjoy, so it’s now or never. It will be nice to be able to play around at night after a long hot day working the farm. They say that this will be an extremely hot and humid summer, ugh!

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Groundhog Day 2016

Today is Groundhog Day. If this furry little varmint sees his shadow, then we are doomed to six more weeks of winter. If he does not, then Spring is just around the corner – 6 weeks or less. I personally don’t see the logic in this. If you don’t see your shadow, it’s because the sun is behind a bunch of clouds. What does that have to do with foretelling the speed of spring’s approach? Spring will get here in her own good time.

In these parts, spring does not come in February, no matter what shadows lurk around groundhog holes, although yesterday we did enjoy warm temps – it hit 60 degrees and felt great when I took the dogs out for their walk. So February takes up 4 weeks of winter, regardless of the shadow seeing moment. The question then becomes, how far into March do we have cold weather? Does a quick spring conflict with the other old saying, “If March comes in like a lion then it goes out like a lamb”? I say, welcome the lion and forget the groundhog!

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Christmas Shopping All Done Online This Year

It didn’t take me as long as I thought to find and purchase a wonderful Rickenbacker Guitar via the Internet last week MusiciansFriend.com Rickenbacker. This much anticipated package arrived this morning at my door, which gives me plenty of time to get it wrapped up and put up in the guest room along with the other presents that I plan on taking to my sister’s house tomorrow morning. I haven’t seen anyone on that side of the family since Thanksgiving, People have gotten way too busy and when a major holiday comes around it really messes things up.

I am thrilled with the fact that I got all of my Christmas shopping done online this year. I didn’t have to go to any brick and mortar stores for anything, including the wrapping paper and ribbons. I had plenty of scotch tape and gift labels left over from last year, so I didn’t have to worry about those items, but I’m sure I will need to replenish my supply before next Christmas comes around.

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Mother Loved Her Diamonds

Soon after we are all done with Christmas and New Years, it will be February, and then Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. My mother was born on February 14th, so it was always a day that my mother enjoyed immensely. Mother really had an eye for all things shiny and pretty, so diamonds always were a hit for her. Dad tried his best to give her everything that she always wanted and once in a while he would present to her on February 14th some very nice Diamond earrings gift that would put the biggest smile on her face for weeks on end, and make her the happiest person on earth.

Ross-Simons is certainly one of the better known jewelry stores around, they’ve been in business since 1952 and still going strong and they are currently offering up to 1/3 off of their diamond earrings, along with Free Shipping to boot. I was feeling a bit melancholy earlier and was checking out jewelry sites, seeing all the “bling” that my mother was have gone ape over if she was still here among us. She was just getting comfortable with using the Internet and all that it has to offer, she really would have enjoyed surfing the net and seeing all the nice shiny things that a person can order due to today’s technology.

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Miss That Warm and Fuzzy Christmas Feeling

If the Ibanez that I ordered doesn’t get here soon I won’t have the time to wrap it and get it in the mail to my nephew in time for Christmas. I’m sure it will but for some reason I’ve gotten myself a bit nervous about the whole deal. Must be that I’m just so beat from working so hard around here lately and with the holidays quickly approaching I tend to get a bit whacked out since my folks passed on and I’ve moved in and taken over the house and the farm and everything that goes along with all of that.

I really miss my folks and warm fuzzy feelings that we really didn’t appreciate to the fullest until it was taken away from us all so suddenly. At least my sister isn’t far from here and she has done her best to keep me included in all of her dinners, get togethers and celebrations. I couldn’t have asked for a better big sister. This year I will actually spend the night before Christmas at her place if I can get everything in order around here for me to be away for the night. It will be nice to wake up Christmas morning and be around family again, instead of waking up here alone as I have been doing for the past several years. Way too depressing.

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Christmas Trees

Well today is the day I’ll be cutting my Christmas tree.  I’m one of the lucky folks who has the ability to just walk out to the “back forty” and cut down a tree off of my own property.  Just one of the benefits of having a farm, I guess!  You can plan your own Christmas tree needs and take care of that with very little trouble.  I was noticing that the live Christmas vendors are selling live trees for $60 and up this year!  I think that is a pretty steep price!  And a lot of the live Christmas trees that consumers buy off of tree lots (and some farms) are covered with chemicals used to control pests.

I don’t spray my trees, so I’m confident that whatever tree I bring into the house is chemical free.  And for every tree that I cut down, I plant three in its place so I don’t feel too bad about wreaking havoc on the environment by cutting down a tree on my own farm.  I think that if I didn’t have that option of cutting down my own tree on my own farm that I’d probably buy an artificial one – they don’t cost that much anymore and are easy to care for.  The only problem with them, as far as I’m concerned is where to store them in the “off season!”

fresh cut
Can’t Get Any Fresher Than This

 

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No Jam Shredding

We are having our first family birthday celebration in the year 2016, come the end of February, and then it seems that we will be having birthdays none stop up until June then it will slack off until the month of September rolls around and then they will be popping up every other day it seems like. All the way up to Christmas and New Years, then it’s time to start all over again. Having a large family has many positive things to offer its family members in so many ways. But one of the major draw backs is the amount of birthdays that we end up with all year round.

Anyway my kid brother, Andy, is the first to have a birthday in the year and he is a leap year baby at that. Of course that brings on many challenges in it’s self and trying to find him a good birthday gift can be strenuous. But this year I happen to know that he is looking for a decent strip-cut shredder for this office of his self owned body shop.

Businesses hasn’t been all that good the past couple of years so he has had to make some cuts here and there in order to keep the business alive and running. He has a dozen employees relying on him to keep things from going too sour. They are a great group of people that are much like an extended family to my brother, his wife and his kids and to many others in the immediate family (like myself) and we don’t want to see anything bad happen to any of them.

So anyways I have the perfect gift picked out for him to use in his office, which he spends so much time in with all the lovely paperwork that is required with just about anything these days. I’m seriously going to get him a Swingline, DS22-13 paper shredder, I’ve found one online. It is said to be Non Stop Jam Free, it has Auto shut down, it’s made for moderate shared usage and it shreds credit cards, staples, CDs and paper clips. I’m hoping he will enjoy it and use it, all he needs is for someone to get their hands on all of his financial information, that would not be good. So we shall see how that all pans out.

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Halloween

I don’t get many trick-or-treaters out here to the farm.  Never have had many of them, we live so far out in the boonies, and our driveway is a very long distance from the road.  So I don’t bother laying in a stock of Halloween candy for trick-or-treaters.  I just lay in a stockpile of quarters and if anyone shows up I’ll give them a couple of quarters.  I figure that when I was a kid I would have much preferred money to candy anyway!  Parents don’t have to worry about kids getting too much of a sugar high from quarters, either!  I figure it’s the perfect “treat.”

sad
Your Money Or Your Life!
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Season’s Greetings From The Family Homestead

My parents were adamant about sending out Christmas cards to many friends and every family member that they ever had the pleasure of meeting and knowing. Last year I didn’t get a chance to send any cards out, for many a reasons. But this year I plan on sending out as many as I possibly can that I can read legibly on my mother’s handwritten Christmas card list. I discovered it a few months back in a dresser drawer that I was cleaning out and was pleased to read over it.

Since the place has many pine trees adorning it, I thought it fitting to sent the Pinecone photo Christmas cards that I found online with the photo of the old house that I uploaded and will have imprinted on the front of it. I think the folks that will be receiving them will appreciate.

Christmas will be here soon enough, I have my work cut out for me, there are over 50 names and addresses on that list!

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Daylight Savings Time Ends at 2:00 a.m.

Tonight is a night that I look forward to all year long, each and every year. At 2:00 a.m. we are all supposed to set our clocks back one hour and to let Daylight Savings Time end for the year 2015. This is not my favorite “holiday” life is so much better when it stays lighter out for longer periods of time.

Right in the middle of summer is actually stays light until after 9:00 p.m., which is so awesome. Since I spend so much of my time outside in the yard and the garden that time of the year and I tend to wait for the sun to go down and it becomes dark to to in the house to start to fix,cook, and eat dinner, some of the summer time my dinners aren’t until almost 11 o’clock, sometimes midnight!

Anyway, don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour tonight folks.

a great question
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